Madison tied for 13th at mid-point of state finals

Detmer tied for 12th, Holt 20th

STATE FINALS: Madison’s Amanda Detmer (above) unleashes a tee-shot and Hannah Holt watches the flight of her ball during the first round of the IHSAA girls golf state finals Friday in Franklin. (Photos special to the Courier by Steve McClure.)

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Madison's girls golf team briefly flirted with the top five before ultimately settling into a tie for 13th at the IHSAA girls golf state finals at The Legends of Indiana Golf Course on Friday in Franklin.

The Cubs, making their first state finals appearance since 2002, shot a 358 to trail first round leader Carmel by 54 strokes.

The only Lady Cub with past state finals experience, junior Amanda Detmer who has advanced to the state tourney in each of her three varsity seasons, led Madison with a 4-over-par 76 that left her eight strokes off first-round leader Harley Dubsky, a senior from Valparaiso.

Detmer's 76 put her in a four-player tie for 12th while Madison's Hannah Holt, a senior, turned in a very respectable 78 that left her tied for 20th.

From that point on Madison's lack of state finals experience took a toll as juniors Carmen Velasco, Abbi Wynn and Kyla Johnson carded a 101, 103 and 106, respectively, to stand tied for 93rd, 95th and 96th in the 100-player field.

Detmer, who finished sixth at the 2012 state finals and tied for fourth in 2011, got off to a rocky start on her first nine holes, part of which was played in a drizzling rain. Starting on the 10th tee, she double-bogeyed the par-four 11th, birdied the par-four 12th and doubled-bogeyed the par-three 16th to go out in 39. Detmer's play was much more even on the second nine with six pars to go with bogeys at the par-five second and par-four ninth holes and a birdie at the par-five sixth to close with a 37.

Holt went out in 40 and came home in 38 with 11 pars, a double bogey at the 12th, bogeys at the 11th, 18th, first, fifth and eight holes and a birdie at the ninth to close out her first round.

Wynn went out in 45 and was on course to shoot a respectable round when she hit a disastrous stretch of holes on the second nine including an eight on the par-four fourth hole, a 12 on the par-four fifth and a nine on the par-five sixth hole.

Velasco, the Cubs' foreign exchange student from Spain, played her toughest round since coming to America to go out in 53 and come home in 48 in a round that included three eights and a seven. Johnson went out in 50 and came home in 56 in a round that included a 10, a nine, an eight and three sevens.

No. 2 Carmel leads top-ranked Penn by 15 strokes in the team competition after Day 1 while No. 4 Zionsville is another three strokes back of Penn.

The final round begins at 8:30 a.m. today but the Cubs won't begin taking the course until 8:57 a.m. when Johnson tees off at the 10th hole. Wynn is scheduled for a 9:06 tee time with Velasco at 9:15, Holt at 9:24 and Detmer at 9:33.

Live results are available on the internet through the IHSAA website at ihsaa.org or at www.golfstatresults.com/public/index.cfm?tournament_id=4973.